


Know No Better

by SilverMyfanwy



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Agriculture, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Farm/Ranch, Big Hair, Boggarts, Books, Care of Magical Creatures, Coming of Age, Divination, F/M, Fear of a Parent, Fencing, Gen, Hair Dyeing, Hogwarts, Homework, Malfoy's Boggart is his father, Not Canon Compliant - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Pranks and Practical Jokes, References to Shakespeare, Sheep, The Burrow (Harry Potter), Walks In The Woods, countryside
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-21
Updated: 2018-09-01
Packaged: 2019-06-30 03:02:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15742854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverMyfanwy/pseuds/SilverMyfanwy
Summary: Being a magical teenager in a house full of magical teenagers on a farm full of sheep was complicated enough. Then hereditary blood disorders, Boggarts, hair dye and Shakespeare get brought into the mix.-In which Hermione drops hints,  Ron puts his foot in it, Harry would probably like an uninterrupted night's sleep, Ginny gets scrambled egg in her hair and attitudes towards Draco Malfoy change dramatically.





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> The results of listening to Know No Better (Major Lazer) about twenty times one day last year and desperately wanting the Weasleys on a proper farm.  
> Enjoy :)

_Yeah, you know no better_  
Say you different, who you kidding?  
Yeah, you know no better

\- Know No Better by Major Lazer Camila Cabello, Travis Scott, Quavo

 

 

“I hate Draco Malfoy.” Ron snarled, throwing his bag onto the floor. “I hate him and his precious pureblood this and his precious pureblood that.”

“You’re a pureblood.” Fred reminded his brother, grinning, as he dropped his own bag on the floor.

“Well, we’re blood traitors, aren’t we, so it doesn’t count.” Ron slumped into a chair.

“You can’t help blood.” Mrs Weasley said from where she was stirring something at the stove. Fred, George, Ginny, Harry and Hermione joined Ron at the table.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Ron asked, puzzled.

Hermione opened her mouth to explain but Mrs Weasley stopped her with a finger.

“You have to find out for yourself.” Mrs Weasley told him. “All of you, you have to find out what it means for yourself.”

Ron squirmed uncomfortably. That had not been the reaction he expected.

“Have you got homework?” Mrs Weasley asked. Everyone apart from Ginny nodded. “Go and do it, then. Ginny, would you feed the pigs?”

Harry, Ron and Hermione left Mrs Weasley and Ginny to argue and climbed up the stairs. The Weasleys- and during term and most holidays Harry and Hermione- lived on a large farm three miles away from Hogwarts. They had pigs, sheep, chickens, cows, a pond full of frogs, fields full of barley and a house with many magically added extensions to accommodate everyone and the ghoul in the attic. It was home for Harry, because there were no abusive relatives, and home for Hermione, because she could roam at large with her magic in the wizarding world.

There were nine people around the table at dinner that night; Mr Weasley who had come in from trimming sheep hooves and Percy, the third eldest of the Weasley clan, who had been at Hogwarts fulfilling prefect duties. Percy teased Fred and George relentlessly throughout dinner, calling them out on their low grads and letter home record which was worse than Bill, Charlie and Ron (none of which had been perfect) put together. He had just finished making a particularly nasty remark about a prank they had pulled on the charms teacher when he yawned loudly. “I’d best be off to do my homework before I fall asleep. Goodnight.”

Fred and George glared at his back as he walked away. “You know,” Ginny said quietly so that neither of the adults heard, “I was going to keep this to myself so I could blackmail him, but you could use this better than I can. Percy’s got a girlfriend.”

“Has he?” George gaped joyously. “Who?”

“Penelope Clearwater. She’s a Ravenclaw. She’s a prefect, too.” Ginny wrapped her arms around herself smugly.

“How did you find out?” Ron gasped. “He didn’t actually tell you, did he?”

“Course not. I walked in on them snogging in an empty classroom.”

Fred and George were nearly beside themselves. “Really?”

Ginny nodded. “He gave me four Galleons not to say anything, but I never agreed to anything.”

“Have we told you you’re our favourite sister?” Fred beamed.

“I’m your only sister,” Ginny grumbled, but she smiled anyway.

Fred and George leaped up from their chairs and bounded over to Mrs Weasley, who was stacking plates up. “Mum, guess what?”

Mrs Weasley took a deep breath. “What’ve you done?”

“Percy’s got a girlfriend!”

Mrs Weasley’s face lit up. “Has he?” she scurried up the stairs, calling out to Percy.

The others collapsed in laughter all around the table.

“How long have you known for?” Ron asked Ginny wiping his eyes.

“Since last year.”

“And you kept quiet all summer?”

“Yeah.”

Hermione pulled her timetable out of her bag and examined it. “We’ve got our first lesson with Hagrid tomorrow.”

“Any idea what it’ll be like?” Harry leaned over her shoulder and took in the rest of the next day’s classes. “Oh, we’ve got Divination tomorrow.”

“Divination? Isn’t that the one with Trelawney?” George asked.

“That’s what the timetable says.” Hermione shrugged. “Why? She isn’t awful, like Snape or someone, is she?”

“She’s not awful,” Fred began.

“But it really depends on what she’s seen in her crystal ball about your death that dy.” George finished.

“I thought you two didn’t take divination.” Ginny frowned.

“We didn’t. We’ve just heard absolutely loads about her from our mates.”

“Most of them aren’t even sure why Dumbledore hired her. Apparently she’s only made one correct prophecy in class ever.” George flicked Ron on the ear. “Now lovely as this has been, and thanks again Ginny, we’ve got to go and do things.”

“I’m sure Professor Trelawney can’t be all that bad.” Hermione, always on the side of the teacher, said as Fred and George pushed and shoved each other up the stairs. “Their friends are probably just too busy messing about to notice it.”

“I need to go and put the chickens to bed.” Ginny glanced out of the window. “It’s nearly dark. You coming Hermione?”

Hermione got up and followed Ginny outside.

“What do you think my mum meant?” Ron asked suddenly.

“What do you mean?”

“When she said that Malfoy couldn’t help his blood.”

“She didn’t say that.”

“She basically did.”

“Yeah.” Harry thought for a moment. “I dunno, really.”

“Nevermind. Mum’ll have forgotten about it completely come tomorrow.” Ron picked up the timetable Hermione had left. “Hagrid, charms, Divination, Double Transfiguration and Astronomy.”

“When does Defence Against the Dark Arts start again?”

“Uh, Thursday.”

“Do you want a game of Exploding Snap before bed?”

“Alright.”

~

Harry couldn’t sleep that night. He kept on thinking about what Care of Magical Creatures and Divination would be like tomorrow and that day’s run in with Malfoy was bugging him more and more every time he thought about it. He put his glasses back on and stared up at the ceiling. Ron was fast asleep, snoring slightly like he did every night, and moonlight was filtering in through a gap in the curtains.

He got up silently and padded over to the window. He peered out into the yard. Fred and George were slinking out of one of the sheds, looking suspicious. Fred glanced up and spotted Harry. He winked, grinned and held a finger to his lips, then drew a line across his throat with a finger. Harry’s eyebrows shot up into his forehead and he nodded rapidly.

Fred and George slunk back into the house and Harry went back to bed with no idea what the twins were up to, but feeling far more peaceful than he had done before having a death threat. At least the twins were still acting normally.

~

_“SHUT UP!” Harry roared. The grey and white shapeless, floating figures began to cluster around him, moaning and muttering, stretching out ghoulish fingers to try and snatch him away from himself. He twisted and turned, trying to get away. One hand closed around his upper arm and he screamed as it seemed to be sucked into his bloodstream, pulling all the other figures in with it. Harry watched as his legs, hands, arms and upper body all began to turn grey and he felt his whole body turning from a solid figure into ghost-like mush. He tried to scream, but only a pitiful squeak of a despondent scream came out. He clawed at his own face but felt nothing. He thrashed and fought, trying to shake the grey out of his body but they only seemed to get sucked in more, in a never-ending stream._

“Harry! Wake up!” Ron was shaking Harry violently. “Wake up, you idiot, come on!”

Harry jolted awake. Ron was hovering over him, face pale and anxious. Harry felt hot and sticky, his hair plastered to his forehead, and realised he was lying in a pool of his own sweat. He fumbled blindly for his glasses and Ron pressed them into his hand. The smooth, cold metal felt almost alien to touch as Harry pushed them onto his face.

“You were having a nightmare.” Ron said quietly. “You were screaming and screaming and screaming. I had to wake you up, coz, I couldn’t leave you in there and besides, you were going to wake the whole house up!”

“Thanks.” Harry wiped his face on the duvet. “What time is it?”

Ron glanced at a clock. “It’s half past three. Too early to get up.”

Harry sank his head onto his pillow and yet again found himself staring unblinkingly up at the ceiling. “Was I screaming much?”

Ron nodded. “It sounded like a really bloody awful dream, mate. Can you remember it?”

“Yeah. There were loads of grey things and then they were all getting sucked into me and then I was turning into one of the grey things and it was awful.”

“Sounded it.” Ron yawned.

“Did I wake you up?”

“Yeah.”

“Sorry.”

“No worries.” Ron shook his head and climbed back into bed. “G’night Harry.”

“Night Ron.”

-

Harry barely got any sleep that night. He reckoned he got another hour of sleep between being woken up from his nightmare and getting up to get ready for school. The Burrow, as always in the mornings, was full of people rushing about getting ready for work or school while Mrs Weasley tried her very best to feed them all before they left the house. Mr Weasley was the first to leave, going up to the cow shed mere moments after Harry and Ron walked blearily into the kitchen and started eating sausages.

Percy was next to leave, wearing perfectly ironed robes and with impeccably combed hair, shooting a smirk at his siblings. Hermione came down for breakfast, already dressed, and Ginny tried to finish a Charms essay while shoveling scrambled eggs into her mouth. There was a loud chorus of squawking chickens from outside and Mrs Weasley rushed to go and feed them as well.

Fred and George came in, ruffled everyone’s hair and in doing so knocked a goblet of pumpkin juice all over Ginny and her essay. Mrs Weasley had it all cleared up and Ginny’s essay back in pristine condition in a matter of seconds but that didn’t stop Ginny from yelling blue murder at her brothers. Harry, Ron and Hermione made a hasty retreat when a teapot started getting thrown around.

“I’m just going to get my bag quickly and then I’m going to school. I want to see if I can catch Professor Flitwick to talk about the Hexes we were doing the other day.”

“Alright.” Harry and Ron jogged upstairs to get ready and Hermione left out of the rarely used front door (which was almost completely covered in ivy) as to go out of the back door, would have meant crossing the firing line between Ginny and the twins.

“Don’t forget your gloves.” Harry reminded Ron as they consulted their timetable for the books they’d need.

“what do we need them for?” Ron frowned.

“Care of Magical creatures. On the kit list for the year, it said we’d need them.”

Ron groaned. “Ugh, does that mean we have to take the textbook in with us today?”

Harry nodded and looked at the suitcase he and Ron had locked theirs up in. “Shall we take them out of the suitcase and tie them up or shall we just carry them in the suitcase?”

“Suitcase.” they said simultaneously.

“I’ll carry it if you take my bag.” Harry offered.

“Deal.”

In the kitchen, Ginny was washing scrambled egg out of her hair in the sink and Fred and George were wolfing down pieces of toast. By the colour of her face, Harry guessed that Mrs Weasley had just been telling them off.

“We’re going now.” Ron said.

Mrs Weasley brightened up. “Okay dears.” she gave them each a hug. Just as they were walking out of the door, she called for them to stop. “Have you got your homework?”

“Yes.” they chorused.

“And all your books?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Try not to get into trouble and remember what I said last night. You have to find out what not being able to help blood means.”

“Do we have to?” Ron groaned.

“Yes. Now off you go or you’ll be late for school! Ginny have you finished washing your hair yet? School starts in- goodness me is that really the time?”

Harry and Ron began their trek through the farmyard and onto the road to school.


	2. Chapter Two

Divination had been one of their most interesting lessons so far. Their teacher, Professor Trelawney, was a strange woman who wore large glasses, lots of jewellery, and flowing, billowing robes. She spoke in a mysterious voice and seemed to be one of the teachers that wouldn’t stand a chance if the class decided to join forces and revolt.

They had started the class by getting into pairs and drinking tea so they could read the tea leaves left behind. This went badly, as Neville broke two tea cups, someone turned out to be allergic to tea and Seamus Finnegan, whilst trying to heat his tea cup with a spell, set the whole table on fire. Added to this, Hermione had heavily criticised Trelawney as soon as the lesson was over and seemed to think it was all a load of hocus-pocus.

“All this school teaches is hocus-pocus!” Ron pointed out.

Hermione shook her head firmly. “No. This school teaches genuine magic, not hocus-pocus. _Trelawney_ teaches hocus-pocus.”

“I thought that hocus-pocus was in potions.” Harry said. “You know, when you’re stirring it and adding things and muttering the magic words and stuff.”

“Don’t be silly, Harry.” Hermione and Ron said at the same time.

“No one ever says magic words in potions unless they’re trying to boil it of freeze it or something.” Ron continued as Hermione said: “You’re thinking of Shakespeare, Harry. The three witches in Macbeth when they’re throwing things in their potion. That’s hocus-pocus, just like Trelawney’s tea cups.”  

“Who’s Shakespeare?” Ron asked.

“Don’t ask.” Harry advised him. “Come on, we’re going to be late for Care of Magical Creatures and it’s Hagrid’s first lesson as a proper teacher and he’ll never forgive, or forget, if we miss even the first ten seconds of it.”

“I’ll tell you about Shakespeare later.” Hermione promised Ron. They shouldered their bags, and Harry gripped the suitcase handle tighter, and hurried out of the castle into the grounds.

-

The first Care of Magical Creatures lesson had only landed one person in the hospital wing, which was better than the last teacher who sent an average of five there every lesson, but the unfortunate student who landed themselves in Madam Pomfrey’s care was Draco Malfoy, who had not followed Hagrid’s instructions and ended up being attacked by and angry Hippogriff named Buckbeak. Draco had been carried off in Hagrid’s arms, with a minor wound he was treating as fatal. It had put an interesting mood on Harry, Ron and Hermione, whose day had gone from bad to worse.

She didn’t speak once on the way home she was so angry.

-

Harry and Ron were draped over various pieces of furniture in Ron’s room when Ginny came in, arms full of books.

“Oh don’t tell me Hermione’s completely corrupted you…” Ron groaned at the sight of the books.

“She wanted me to give them to you. She borrowed them from the library today.” Ginny put the books on Ron’s bed and looked at the titles.

“Why couldn’t she give them to us herself?” Harry asked.

“She’s in a bad mood and said she didn’t want to interact with either of you because then there’d be an argument. Did you ask for Hermione for these books? They’re a bit odd.”

“What are they?” Ron asked. “Shakespeare?”

“What’s Shakespeare?” Ginny handed Ron one of the books. “They’re all on magical illness, blood disorders or hereditary disorders and there’s also one on wizarding family trees.”

“Does ours take up half of it?” Ron asked with a grin.

“We’re not in it.” Ginny said flatly.

“Why not?” Ron’s eyebrows furrowed.

“W aren’t pureblood enough to make the cut.”

“So this’ll just be the Malfoys and their mates then?” Ron guessed.

“Yep. Why’s Hermione given you these books anyway?”

Harry shuddered and slammed one of the books shut. “Don’t look in that one. The pictures are a bit ugly.”

“How bad?” Ginny grinned.

“Inverted ears and brain leaking out of someone’s nose?”

“Oh gross.”

“Harry, you don’t think this is to do with what my mum said about not being able to help blood, do you?” Ron asked.

“It’s that or Hermione’s dropping hints that we’re bigoted purebloods with nasty diseases she can’t bring herself to tell us about in person.” Harry decided.

“Mum said to tell you it’s nearly dinner.” Ginny mentioned after a few moments of looking through the books.

Ron looked up at her in panic. “When was that?”

Ginny thought for a moment. “About half an hour ago?”

“About half an hour ago? Dinner will have been on the table for ten minutes by now! Come on Harry, we need to go!” Ron stood up, causing a pile of books to cascade off his lap and onto Harry.

“Ow!”

“Sorry!” Ron was already half-way down the stairs.

Harry and Ginny arrived in the kitchen not long after Ron and found that dinner had been almost abandoned. A pot of potatoes was boiling over, spilling froth out over the edges and a pot of casserole was emitting green steam. The inside of the sink was splattered with a red liquid that looked a lot like blood.

Percy’s hair was bright pink.

Fred and George were having a silent screaming match- silencing charms had been put up in the kitchen doorway- with Mrs Weasley.

Mr Weasley was sat at the table, head in hands.

Hermione was hiding behind the door frame, not daring to go in.

“What’s happened?” Ron asked Hermione.

“Fred and George put pink hair dye in Percy’s shampoo and they put charms on it so that it can’t be undone with magic and has to grow out and there was a letter from Hogwarts about what they did in a fight with a group of Slytherins and it’s all got very, very messy.” Hermione explained.

“They’ve forgotten dinner.” Ron said bleakly. “Look, Mum’s left all the pans and things and-”

“What’s that in the sink?” Harry leaned over Ron’s shoulder and his eyes widened.

“It is blood.” Hermione confirmed. “You don’t want to know how it got there.”

Harry and Ginny exchanged a look but Ron was fixated on the dinner. “We need to go and rescue it.”

“And risk getting my eardrums blown open? No thanks.” Ginny folded her arms.

“We could just eat sweets and chocolate for dinner.” Harry suggested. “We’ve got that stash of Honeyduke’s upstairs.”

“I’ve got half a cake we can share.” Ginny piped up.

“Where did you get a cake from?” Ron demanded.

“I made it.”

Ron stared at the pots on the stove. He sighed. “We’ll have to leave them.”

“Did that hurt you to say?” Hermione said snarkily.

Ron glared at her.

~

Dinner was in Ginny and Hermione’s room, where they sat on the floor eating carrot cake and chocolate frogs. Ron and Hermione weren’t talking to each other and Harry and Ginny made idle conversation about Quidditch.

Mrs Weasley opened the door. Her face was red and puffy and she looked exhausted. “I’ve salvaged what I can of dinner.” she said. “Oh. You’re eating already.”

“But it isn’t proper food.” Ginny said. “We’ll come and have dinner.”

Mrs Weasley nodded, more to herself than anyone else, and left. They dealt with the rest of the food by stuffing it into their mouths as fast as they could and walked in a somber line downstairs.

The six of them ate dinner in silence. Fred and George had banished themselves to their room, more out of a sense of self-preservation than anything else, and Percy had locked himself away and was refusing to come out. The kitchen was a mess, with bits of broken plate on the floor and an odd blue stain on the wall above the sink, which was still splattered with blood. The food had been cooked beyond redemption and was so bad that even Ron turned down seconds for what was probably the first time in his life.

“I’m taking Percy into school early tomorrow morning to see if Professor Flitwick can change the colour of his hair back again. Do any of you want to go in early too? Do some work in the library or get some revision done or anything?” Mrs Weasley said at last.

They all shook their heads.

“Sorry the food wasn’t up to its usual standard.” she sighed. “Fred and George have been a bit difficult.”

“Percy is horrible to them.” Ginny said.

“That’s no reason to dye his hair pink!” Mrs Weasley snapped. “Oh sorry Ginny. Look, why don’t you four all go up to bed and I’ll start cleaning up. If I start now I might be done in time to start making breakfast.” she sighed and stared bleakly at the table.

“It’s alright, Mrs Weasley.” Hermione said quietly. “We’ll help you.”

“Thank you, dears.” if Mrs Weasley had seen the withering glare Ron and Ginny gave Hermione she clearly chose to ignore it. “Would you mind washing the sink out and then doing the washing up?”

“I’ll do it.” Harry volunteered.

“Thank you, Harry. Hermione and Ginny, could you go and do the last feeds? Arthur’s got to finish fixing the tractor.”

“What about me?” Ron asked hopefully, thinking he’d got out of a job.

“You can do the drying for Harry, can’t you dear?” Mrs Weasley smiled. Hermione, Ginny and Mr Weasley all left and Harry began fiddling with the lid of the washing up liquid bottle. “So have you two been thinking about why you can’t help blood?”

“Hermione’s borrowed loads of books from the library and given them to us. I think she’s trying to tell us what it means without actually saying it.” Ron dropped two tea towels before he actually managed to hole one long enough to start on the pile of mugs Harry had wiped clean. “Why can’t you do al this with magic? It’d be so much quicker.”

“I’ve had enough magic for one day.” Mrs Weasley sighed.

“But Mum, how can you have had enough magic? It takes seconds!”

“No.” Mrs Weasley said firmly. “Have you looked at the books Hermione gave you?”

“A bit.” Harry said. “Some of them were a bit gory.”

“And have the books helped you work out what it means?”

“No.” Ron glared at the floor.

“Are you going to read the books?”

“Probably not.”

“Why?”

“Too much homework.”

“What do you think it means, Harry?”

“Before I answer, would you mind telling me why it was you said that to us in the first place?” Harry asked hopefully.

“I believe that you were complaining about Draco Malfoy being pro-Pureblood and anti-Muggleborn. And calling us blood traitors?”

Ron nodded. “Sounds about right.”

“Has it got anything to do with blood diseases?” Harry hazarded a guess.

“What sort of blood diseases?”

“Hereditary ones.”

“No it doesn’t, but it is to do with who you’re related to.”

Harry thought for a moment. “Is it- does it mean that Malfoy can’t help being a Pureblood and being a Malfoy just like I can’t help it that I’m related to the Dursleys?”

Mrs Weasley nodded triumphantly. “Anything else?”

Harry looked at the floor and then said very quietly: “Does it mean that we shouldn’t be mean to Malfoy because he’s a Malfoy?”

“Yes.”

“But Mum-” Ron began to protest, face turning scarlet with anger.

“No ‘but Mum’, Ronald.” Mrs Weasley glared. Draco Malfoy might have been a very different person if he had come from another family.”

“Emphasis on the might.” Rom muttered, but Mrs Weasley heard him.

Harry barely noticed Ron being told off as a sense of guilt built up in the pit of his stomach.

 


	3. Sheep

Harry and Ron were roused at 3 am the next day. Fred shook them awake by their shoulders and they woke to the sound of people running up and down stairs and raised voices.

“What’s going on?” Ron muttered, rubbing his eyes.

“Get up, get dressed, get out. The sheep have got lose, we need to go and round them up.” Fred said quickly and hurried out.

“The sheep got out?” Ron said, dazed.

Harry put his glasses on and began searching through the assorted clothes on the floor. The door swung open and hit the wall with a thump. It was Percy, whose glasses were lopsided and hair a brilliant shade of pink. “You haven’t got time to get dressed! Just grab your coats and put your wellies on, it’s raining!”

“But it’s freezing!” Ron protested.

“Then put a jumper on, nitwit!” Percy closed the door.

Ron and Harry both tugged on hoodies and ran downstairs, nearly knocking over Hermione on the way.

“Sorry Her- what is wrong with your hair?” Harry demanded.

“It’s always like this before I brush it.” Hermione gingerly patted the sides of her huge mass of hair. “Oh that’s bigger than I’d thought.”

“Hurry up you three!” Mr Weasley shouted up at them and they walked down the rest of the stairs to tug on wellies and throw waterproof coats on. They were pushed out of the back door and into the rain, cold and dark.

“Dad, can we light our wands?” Ron shouted.

“Yes.”

They muttered _Lumos_ and were able to see.

“Where have the sheep got out?” Ginny asked George, her hood falling down over her face. Hermione’s hood barely managed to contain all her hair.

“The top field. Fence has blown down.”

“How do we know that the sheep have got out anyway?”  Harry asked.

George gave a wolfish grin. “Fred and I found one in the shed and two in the garden.”

“In the middle of the night?” Hermione demanded incredulously. “You two were outside in the middle of the night?”

The twins nodded unashamedly and Fred winked at Harry.

“There were thirty-six sheep in that field!” Mr Weasley shouted over the rain. “I want them all rounded up and put in the barn!”

“Don’t go off by yourself and if you get into trouble or need extra help send up red sparks with your wand!” Mrs Weasley added hastily.

“Do you want us to go and check the road?” Ginny asked.

“Yes, you four go down and check the road but make sure you don’t get hit by anything!” Mrs Weasley said.

Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny began to walk across the gravel drive that lead to the road. There were tall hedges on either side of the road that were thick enough for a sheep to easily hide in. In the dark and with only the light of their _Lumos_ charms as the rain clouds had blotted out the stars, everything was eerie and nearly everything resembled a sheep.

“If it’s a real sheep, it will probably bleat.” Hermione said. “And it’ll move and glow white.”

“Sheep don’t glow in the dark.” Ginny said.

Hermione looked up at the black sky. “They reflect light. They’ll reflect the L _umos_.”

“There’s one!” Harry pointed out. One of the sheep had got stuck in the brambles in the hedge.

“I’ll blast it.” Ron stepped forwards, wand out.

“Don’t blast the sheep!” Hermione yelled.

“I wasn’t going to blast the sheep, I am going to blast the brambles!”

“But what about the International Statute-”

“This is a life and death situation!” Ron was exaggerating a bit and he knew it. “The sheep might die or get eaten by a fox or a wolf or something if I don’t free it! And there aren’t any Muggles present either, so.” and he slashed the bramble in two with a Cutting charm.

The sheep continued to bleat miserably and stayed in the hedge.

“Move!” Ron told it.

“No, don’t do that!” Hermione stepped forwards and muttered something at the sheep. It walked out of the hedge and began to walk towards the barn.

“Did you just _Imperio_ it?” Ron gaped at Hermione.

“No. I just used a Sender spell to get it to go back to the barn. Come on, let’s go and find some more sheep.”

It was dawn by the time they found the last sheep. They were exhausted, soaking wet, hungry, cold and fed up.

“Quickly have some breakfast and then get ready for school.” Mrs Weasley said once she had counted all the children.

“No. I’ll need them to help with the fence. We can’t keep the sheep in there,” Mr Weasley gestured to the barn, “overnight. As soon as everyone’s changed and eaten, we’ll go up to the field and try and find where and how the sheep managed to get out. I want to get it fixed straight away.”

“Can’t you just put a barrier up?” Fred asked. He was more fed up than most of them, as one of the larger sheep had knocked him over and into a muddy ditch. His hands were coated in nettle rashes and he’d sprained his ankle. “Can’t we just go to school? Please, can’t we just go to school?”

Harry and Hermione exchanged a look. It was a sign of true desperation that Fred would rather go to school than stay at the Burrow.

“I can’t miss my lessons!” Percy and Hermione both added at the same time.

“There’s an essay I need to hand in.” George said.

“And we’ve got our first lesson with the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher this afternoon.” Ron said.

Mr and Mrs Weasley sighed.

“They really can’t miss a whole day of lessons.” Mrs Weasley said.

“They can go in the afternoon. I’ll go with them to explain why they’re late.”

-

It took three showers before Harry had finally washed all the mud off.

It took Ron four.

They finished at the field at eleven o’ clock and once everyone had limped and slid down the muddy slopes back to the house, they were fed, cleaned and released to school. They ran until they were out of sight of the house and couldn’t be called back to help with anything else.

Mr Weasley was busy with moving the sheep from the barn back to the field, so Percy had been given the job of explaining to Professor McGonagall why they hadn’t been in all morning. Unfortunately, she was waiting at the school doors for them.

“Weasleys, Granger, Potter.” She greeted them curtly, her voice cold. She checked her watch. “May I ask why _exactly_ it is that you have missed all your morning lessons?”

“We were needed at home to help sort out some escaped sheep that got out in the night and then we had to help find out where they escaped from an then we had to help fix the fence. It’s taken all morning.” Ginny explained.

“We did ask to come to school this morning, Professor, we truly, truly did.” Fred looked at Professor McGonagall with such honesty and sadness that she took a step back.

Professor McGonagall looked at the gathered students, who were still slightly mud splattered, had bags under their eyes and leaves in their hair. “I believe you. Hurry up and get to your next lesson, but at the end of the day you will need to go to the professors of each lesson you missed from this morning to get the work and the homework which you will be handing in _to the same deadlines as everyone else_.”

“Yes Professor,” they chorused and headed to lessons.

-

“We’ve got Defence Against the Dark Arts first.” Hermione said as they hurried down the corridors. “I wonder what the new teacher’ll be like. I hope they’re better than the last two.

“We haven’t heard anything about it so far, so whoever it is is probably alright.” Harry said. “What was the professor’s name again?”

“Professor Lupin.” Hermione said as they reached the allocated classroom and the crowd of Gryffindors outside the door waiting to go in.

“They’re running late.” Seamus complained loudly. “And Professor Lupin’s put the blind down on the window so we can’t see in!”

“Who’s running late?” Ron asked and the rest of the class realised that he, Harry and Hermione had finally arrived.

“Why haven’t you been in all morning? The teachers have been right cross about it!” Neville said, slightly annoyed. “They kept asking us if you were skiving off and you’d got us to try and cover for you.”

“Sorry Neville.” Ron apologised. “We haven’t been skiving, honest, in fact, we’ve been bloody desperate to come to school. Some of our sheep got out of their field in the middle of the night and we had to go looking for them to help mend all the places where they’d got out of the fields.” Ron yawned. “I’m exhausted, we’ve been up since- what was the time when Fred woke us up, Harry?”

“Three.”

The Gryffindors gaped at them in horror. Three am get-ups did not exist in their repertoires.

The classroom door swung open and a crowd of fourth year Ravenclaws came flooding out, chatting away excitedly and barely noticing the Gryffindors. At the end of the line or students was a man with a scarred face, probably in his early thirties but wit greying hair already, wearing a patched sweater and a faded pair of trousers.

“Hello.” he smiled at the class. “Would you like to come in?”

The class shuffled in and then stopped short at the sight of the lack of chairs and desks in the classroom.

“Where do we sit down?” Dean asked.

Professor Lupin beamed at them. “You won’t need to sit down. You can put your bags down over by that wall.”

The class put their bags down and started pulling out their books, quills, parchment and wands.

“Oh you won’t need any of that today, just your wands please.” Lupin said.

Harry and Hermione exchanged a look. The lesson was already shaping up to be one of the most interesting ones they’d ever had and the teaching hadn’t even begun yet.

“You don’t think he’s going to lock us in there, do you?” Ron muttered to Harry, gesturing to a large wooden wardrobe at the end of the classroom.

“I hope not.”

“Have you all got your wands out?” Professor Lupin asked.

The class nodded.

“Good. My name is Professor Lupin and I will be your Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher for this year. I would ask you what material you finished with at the end of last year, but Professor McGonagall told me that your last teacher was rather incompetent and didn’t teach you anything useful.”

The class nodded their agreement and Professor Lupin continued.

“Hopefully I will turn out to be a better teacher than Professor Lockhart was and in my quest to accomplish that, we will today be learning how to vanquish a Boggart.”

“You’re not just going to set it loose on us, are you?” Neville asked worriedly. “Because Lockhart set a cage full of Cornish Pixies loose on us without telling us how to deal with it and I got picked up by my ears.”

Lupin’s eyes had been getting wider and wider the further Neville got with his story. “No! No, I will show you how to deal with everything I give you to face.”

“And you won’t leave us to clear up any mess, will you?” Hermione checked.

“No.”

“That makes you better than Lockhart already, sit.” Harry said, meaning it.

Lupin smiled. “Thank you, Harry. Now, on with the Boggart.”

-

The lesson was the best Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson they had ever had.

The whole class came out of it thrilled to pieces at having vanquished their Boggarts and over the moon at having their first ever DADA teacher who wasn’t a fraud or had Voldemort’s face stuck on the back of their head.

As Ron, Harry and Hermione made their way to the next lesson, they came across a group of students jeering at someone in one of the courtyards.

“Oh I hope they aren’t picking on one of the first years.” Hermione said anxiously, craning her neck to try and see who was at the centre of all the fuss.

“I hope they’re not picking on Neville.” Harry said and he changed his direction to go and see if it was Neville.

It wasn’t.

That much was obvious from ten metres away, as the kid in the middle of the pack had hair that could only be Malfoy’s and for once it didn’t seem like her was the one with his mouth open. Harry went up to Dean Thomas, who was at the edge of the crowd. “What’s going on?”

“The Slytherins faced the Boggart yesterday, last lesson. Malfoy’s was his father.” Dean said.

Later, Hermione and Ron would tell Harry that his eyes had flashed with anger and that he had _Silencio_ ed the leader of Malfoy’s attackers and then had yelled at everyone there to leave Malfoy alone and that fear of your legal guardians was no laughing matter, or mocking matter, before storming off down the corridor to the nest lesson. Harry didn’t remember any of it.

The next day, on the way to charms, Malfoy nodded to Harry in the corridor. Harry nodded back.

Harry made sure he gave Mrs Weasley a hug that night.

-

“I don’t hate Malfoy anymore.” Harry told Ron a couple of weeks later.

“What, coz of ‘is dad?”

Harry nodded. “We’ve got more in common than I thought.”

“We’ll frame your cousin for something and get him in jail one day.” Ron promised.

“And then we’ll get Malfoy’s dad. Just won’t need to bother with the framing bit.”

“No.”

They carried on walking through the wood, teeth stained purple with the juice of blackberries they weren’t supposed to have eaten.

“My mum was right about him.” Ron said eventually.

“She’s right about most things.”

“’cept what Fred and George con her into believing.”

They laughed and reached the path for home.

_Yeah you know no better_

-Know No Better by [Major Lazer](https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Major+Lazer&stick=H4sIAAAAAAAAAOPgE-LVT9c3NExJyyhLNq3KVeLSz9U3MK3KM83I1lLKTrbSzy0tzkzWL0pNzi9KycxLj0_OKS0uSS2ySiwqySwuAQDe4N6AQQAAAA&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjW7YevmIPcAhUqBMAKHX61A-AQmxMIOygBMAQ) Camila Cabello, Travis Scott, Quavo

THE END.

 


End file.
